Chemical Disciplines in Ecological Education: a History of Teaching and Reality

Abstract

Purpose. It is the review of history of teaching of the normative discipline «Chemistry with the Basics of Biogeochemistry» and chemical selective disciplines in the formation of bachelor’s and master’s degrees of speciality 101 «Ecology» aimed to 1) pay attention to the modern state of the hourly load of natural disciplines of chemical direction, making the basis for the formation of well-educated ecologist; and 2) to find the ways to improve the chemical component in higher ecological education in terms of the reformation of Ukrainian higher school. Methods. Specification, analysis, synthesis, identifying cause-effect relationships with the declarative direction of the system researches. Results. The analysis of teaching the normative and selective chemical disciplines is conducted for the speciality 101 “Ecology” in chronological order from 1999 to 2018. The usefulness and the importance of the chemical education in forming special and integrated competencies of ecologists have been shown; the article deals with the reduction of hourly load of the normative discipline «Chemistry with the Basics of Biogeochemistry» by one third and provides doubts about the effectiveness of its mastering by applicants of higher education in this context. The teaching of chemical disciplines within the ecological program at the universities of the USA, European Union, Russian Federation and Kazakhstan is discussed too. The most important reasons for training «Chemistry with the Basics of Biogeochemistry» for ecologists are discussed. The ways to solve the problem by changing the approach in the classical teaching of chemistry in the real situation are proposed. Conclusions. Conclusions. In today’s reality, the reduction in teaching chemical disciplines and exclusion of them from the curriculums are unjustified and regressive. The need to expand and to improve the chemical knowledge of ecologist is obvious amid the increase of technogenic load on the biosphere. The introduction of block-disciplines of the ecological-chemical content, special courses, presentations, master classes was proposed for acquiring the required competencies. It is biogeochemistry with its naturalistic informativity and applied component can provide the ecologist with a modern outlook, professional worldview and necessary competence significance.